Experiencing Donald Trump as President of the United States has been a scary and horrific thing for many of us. He and his cabinet, full of unqualified and unsuitable candidates, threaten civil rights, voter rights, climate control, health care, public education, social security, the first amendment, foreign relations, free press, and the values of most good and decent people everywhere. We must resist his actions to destroy the fabric of democracy and the security of our citizens. In an effort to do that, each week I share some acts of resistance and steps of activism you can take. Here are this week’s:
1. PREVENT HR 610 SCHOOL VOUCHER PROGRAMS AND LOWERING NUTRITION STANDARDS
Call your house representative and demand he or she vote against house bill 610, which was introduced on January 23 by Congressman Steve King (R-IA), and will do three things:
* Establish education block grants to states based on the number of elementary and secondary school-aged children living in the state. The states could then use these funds to establish vouchers for homeschoolers, private schools, charter schools and public schools. This would be the extent of the federal funds available to local schools. Voucher programs are known to concentrate wealth in high-income areas and will weaken and segregate our already strained public schools further.
* Repeal the school meal rules established in accordance with Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. This bill was passed with bipartisan support and established more rigorous nutritional guidelines for federally funded school meal programs.
* Repeal the Elementary and Secondary Education Act which includes programs for struggling learners, AP classes, ESL classes, Education for the Homeless, School Safety, Monitoring and Compliance, and Federal Accountability Programs.
Passing this legislation would be a blow to our public school system and rip critical funding from our public schools to private, for-profit institutions.
2. Call Your Senators to Voice Your Opposition to Trump’s Assault on Trans Rights!
Script: Hi, my name is [NAME] and I’m a constituent from [CITY, ZIP].
I’m calling to express my opposition to President Trump’s reversal of Obama’s executive order allowing transgender students use bathrooms based on their gender identities. I want [Senator or Representative’s NAME] to publicly denounce the rollback and fight for the rights of transgender students, publicly and legislatively. The real threat to school safety is not transgender students in bathrooms, but discriminatory policies that stigmatize vulnerable children and teens.
Thank you for your hard work answering the phones.
[IF LEAVING A VOICEMAIL: please leave your full street address to ensure your call is tallied]
3. Please make calls every day of the week! Make it part of your morning or lunchtime routine. It takes five minutes! I’ve listed two topics you can call about. Check the 5 Calls website for more topics of concern. There’s not shortage on things to resist. So, resist, resist, resist!!
What have you done this week as part of the resistance? I’ve made a bunch of calls, and last week I went to my congresswoman’s town hall but was turned away, along with nearly 1000 of my neighbors, when the hall and an overflow room (with a large screen for viewing) both filled to capacity (!). I almost went to a last-minute rally for trans rights but the logistics of getting two small kids there at rush hour prevented me from going. Hopefully, I can make a rally or march soon.
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